“Only then, when you can argue better against yourself than others can, have you done the work to hold an opinion. That is the time you can say, ‘Hey, I can hold this view, because I can’t find anyone else who can argue better against my view.’”

It’s easy to have an opinion, but it’s hard to have a meaningful opinion.

“Creative people naturally produce false-positives. Ideas that they think are good but aren’t. Ideas that other people have already had. Mediocre ideas that contain buried within them the seeds of much better ideas.”

While people obsess over the importance of inspiration and execution within the creative process, they often overlook another element that’s every bit as crucial.

He points out the value in a pause after you find inspiration but before you start creating in order to reflect, think, and prepare for the work ahead of you. Doing so can improve your work and save you from pursuing the wrong projects.

“We find ourselves working under a false definition of community — accepting any connection, any conversation, any link as qualification — and we end up with something that looks like a mob or a mass: singular, thin, and gross.”

“Though parents are often inclined to see their kids as talented and exceptional, most would still be startled to learn that hundreds, or thousands, of other teens suddenly worship their son or daughter.”

Trying to wrap your head around your kid’s social media use is likely a challenge for most parents, but it’s even more of a head-scratcher for the parents of a social media star.